Biography of Pope Francis

Elected the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born Dec. 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires. He grew up in Barrio de Flores, a working-class neighborhood. His father was a railway worker, his mother a homemaker. As a youth the Pope studied in public schools, and in high school obtained a technical certification as a chemist.

From a young age, he knew he would become a priest. When the Pope was 21, he became gravely ill with severe pneumonia and had his right lung partially removed. This has not affected his health or his life, however.

In 1958, Jorge entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, and two years later he took his first vows as a Jesuit. In 1963, on returning to Buenos Aires, he studied philosophy at San Miguel Seminary. Between 1964 and 1965, he taught literature and psychology at a Jesuit secondary school in Santa Fe, Argentina, and in 1966, he taught at the prestigious Colegio del Salvador secondary school in Buenos Aires.

In 1967, he returned to his theological studies and was ordained a priest Dec. 13, 1969. After his perpetual profession as a Jesuit in 1973, he became master of novices at San Miguel. Later that same year, he was elected superior of the Jesuit province of Argentina and Uruguay.

From 1979 to 1985, Father Jorge served as rector and theology teacher at Colegio Maximo, before completing his doctoral thesis in Germany.

In 1992 Fr. Jorge was appointed auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires. He was one of three auxiliaries and spent most of his time caring for the Catholic university, counseling priests and preaching and hearing confessions.

On June 3, 1997, Bishop Bergoglio was named coadjutor archbishop. He was installed as the new Archbishop of Buenos Aires Feb. 28, 1998. As archbishop, he was known simply as “Father Jorge,” and he held the attitude that the Church belongs in the street. He built chapels and missions in poor areas and sent seminarians to serve them.

He spoke out often against injustice, such as the treatment of migrant workers from neighboring countries and against social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

In 2001, Bishop Bergoglio was elevated to cardinal, and later that year he served as an official of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican. That same year, Cardinal Bergoglio began a six-year term as head of the Argentine bishops’ conference.

He was installed as our new Pope on March 19, 2013, the Feast of St. Joseph, before tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.

Pope Francis formally began his ministry as bishop of Rome and as Pope by pledging to protect the Catholic Church, the dignity of each person and the beauty of creation, just like St. Joseph protected Mary and Jesus.

“To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love is to open up a horizon of hope,” he told between 150,000 and 200,000 people gathered during the inaugural Mass.

“In the Gospels,” he said, “St. Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak, but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love.”

“We must not be afraid of goodness, [or] of tenderness,” Pope Francis said.

The fisherman’s ring he chose to wear is made of gold-plated silver and is based on the same design of a papal ring handed down from Pope Paul VI’s personal secretary. It shows an image of St. Peter holding the two keys — one key represents the power in Heaven and the other indicates the spiritual authority of the papacy on Earth. The ring represents the Pope’s role as a “fisher of men.”

The pallium Pope Francis received during the Mass was the same one Pope Benedict XVI used — a short woolen band that the retired pope re-introduced in 2008, and similar to the kind worn by Blessed John Paul II. It is worn over the shoulder and has a 12-inch long strip hanging down the front and the back.

The pallium is a woolen stole that signifies the Pope’s or the archbishop’s authority over the Christian community. It also represents the shepherd’s mission of placing the lost, sick or weak sheep on his shoulders.

The pallium the Pope wears is decorated with six red crosses symbolizing the wounds inflicted on Christ during the Passion.

The end piece, like all palliums, is made of black silk, a symbol of the black sheep that the shepherd rescues and carries over his shoulder back to the flock.

Pope Francis’ papal motto is based on the Gospel account of “The Call of St. Matthew,” the tax collector, in a homily given by St. Bede the Venerable.

The Pope decided to keep his episcopal motto and coat of arms for his pontificate with just a few minor adjustments in line with a papal emblem. The dark blue shield is divided into three sections — each of which has its own symbol. On the top is the official seal of the Society of Jesus in yellow and red, representing Jesus and the religious order in which the Pope was ordained.

Below are a five-pointed star and the buds of a spikenard flower, which represent respectively Mary and St. Joseph.

The papal motto, like his episcopal one, is the Latin phrase “Miserando atque eligendo,” which means “because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him” or more simply, “having mercy, he called him.”

The phrase comes from a homily by St. Bede —an English eighth-century Christian writer and doctor of the church.